Music is very important to me. For example in Wild Arms the beginning music and movie is very good, though sad. But I really did not like the rest of the game. I also did not like the credits playing in the early part of the game making me think it was over when it was not!!!!!!!!!!!

edit: ok I just realized that the question was on PC games not games in general. but you get the idea.

The weather is cool, and there are grey clouds covering the sky.

[edited by - bbutler200 on August 26, 2002 12:47:06 AM]

Only 1 game comes to mind. Diablo 1. (diablo 2 had great gameplay but didnt really get my heart beetin. The cinimatics were pretty good but thats about it.) But diablo 1 i found truly scary. The music was perfect and the sounds too. The music in town was really cool and same with the npc''s voices, it really added to the sortov gloomy dark about to be taken over by the forces of hell effect and really put u in that scared to enter the dungeons mood. The music in the dungeons was real good too. It also great video. It rally had that gloomy look in the town, and dark evil look in the dungeos. They also did great on the bosses for the quality of graphics they used. The butcher was really scary in his room full of dead people. I think it did an awesome job on setting that scary mood from the start and keeping it till the end. I think u also had to play it on 1 player to get the full effect because you felt alone.

A few things:

- It must not feel as though the game/story is forcing me to become ''emotional''. No predictable love-stories, etc. Real life isn''t predictable either. Only 5-cent pulp-fiction books you can buy at the local supermarket contain a story which is predictable.

- During the story, you must become emotionally attached to one or more of the characters through subtle manipulation of your feelings.

A very good example of a story which fits both points listed above is contained in the Japanese anime ''Kanon''. It''s subtle in its manipulation of your feelings, unpredictable in its course and has a somewhat happy ending.

As for the scary stuff, you listed already one example: being pursuit, while hearing the right sounds. In these situations it''s not only important to have the feeling that it is you who is running in that dark alley or tunnel, but also that this feeling is reinforced by visuals and sounds.

Summarized, it''s all about giving the player the idea that it is him who is the character he is controlling, through a variety of subtle methods

I suppose a good idea would be to read. A lot. Read different novels, read Hemingway, read Alan Dean Foster. You''ll start seeing ideas. In fact, Foster''s ''The Dig'' was actually made into a game by LucasArts, and was really pretty well done.

Get a good writer for the script, and work with him/her throughout the making. Usually, this will be someone creative and easy to work with, who can suggest ideas that would bring players more <i>into</i> the game.

If you can take the suggestions above, and merge them into something that can make YOU (yes, the programmer)<b>mad, excited, regretful, vengeful, or make you sad</b>, THEN you know that its going well. Try to step back and play the whole game, or a whole section, and make sure it''s hard hitting.

-geo-

sorry about the above html markers - i copied it from part of my web site source - i totally forgot.

one more thing i forgot: have other people be there once you hit a milestone or major point. have friends and neighbors look at it and give you advice. sure there will be lots of stuff that you cant or wont do, but some of it will be truly effective. "Instead of him falling to his death in the distance, why don''t you have him die in that fiery place you had in the beginning?" could be helpful, in the case that you had a game involving a guy falling to his death (apparently) in a fiery place.

-geo-

hahaha civilization guys - I totally agree....how annoying some of those civs are!! I have had games where a whole day at work I have spent daydreaming my next military strike, alpha centauri was even more annoying with those damn religious goons!!!

lol personal vendetta's in those games are a reoccurring theme for me!
I agree, I just want to smash them, crush them, and how satisfying it is when they wish to declare a "truce" for a war THEY start! bahahaha no way, I bring them down to their knees. Wipe them out!!! MUUUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!

when a game can do that to someone, thats awesome!

Edit: forgot to mention, if a game has surreal atmosphere in the music, I get drawn in hard! (Unreal - great example of epic music) as anon poster mentioned - Stay away from techno. Use classical and orchestral, vocal, etc.... I also like games with science fiction themes, but the music has a HUGE part on the FPS games I play, as does the level of achievment you feel if you are winning.


[edited by - fatherjohn666 on August 27, 2002 12:25:21 AM]

Another important factor in emotion is music. An okay example of this is at the beggining of Homeworld, but this more easily applies to a movie. Emotional attachment is enhanced by good background music.

I played DOOM I and II long time ago, with headpones and the lights turned off alone in my room, and I was REALLY scared, to the point that i needed to stop playing it. So, I ask my self: was it a 14'' screen with a 320x200x256 pixelated game running on it what made me feel scared? I think the fear was inside me, and this Id Software guys just found the way to let this fear came out.

I do remember being there, in a dark corner, looking for the blue key, with low healt, hearing GRRRRRRR GRRRRRRR all over the place, and I did not even see the monsters when I started feeling scared. Oh god, no other game made me feel that way.

I love to be threatened just takes the adrenalin out of me...

I''d say Morrowind....the graphics are so realistic and really make you feel like your in the environment. Also the music and characters set a real good tone to the game. I get so tuned into it that when I hear talk of something "scary" in the game I feel that I should stay safe within a house and not go out exploring for a while. Sometimes you may feel you have to be surrounded by the presence of other NPC''s with good alignment.

The only emotion that makes me say, "Wow, that was emotional" is depression or grief. A game has never made me scared, or even mildly nervous. Excited yes, they almost all do that(almost being everything except turn based strategy. I think of that too much like chess, so I get contemplative instead of excited). Frustrated, yes, but I don''t think that''s a good thing Anger in some cases.

Voice acting is a must. Only FF7 can pull the heart-strings without it. Even a mediocre voice actor can do, "I will make you *PAY* for what you did to her!" fairly well, which is all that''s really required for emotion in situations like that. The trouble comes with having the dispassionate hero and coldly clever villain archetypes that are so hard to voice act yet so popular.